The present invention relates to a method for producing a layer of material embedded in another material. It is applicable in particular to the field of semiconductors and especially for producing substrates of the Silicon on Insulator type.
At present, substrates of the Silicon on Insulator or SOI type are of very great interest for microelectronic applications in the domain of low consumption. There are several methods for obtaining SOI substrates. Those used most these days are the SIMOX process (Separation by Implanted Oxygen) and methods based on bonding by molecular adhesion (wafer bonding). In order to obtain thin films of silicon on silica, these methods, using wafer bonding, are combined with thinning methods. As a thinning process, one can quote that revealed in document FR-A-2 681 472 where the cleavage of a substrate is obtained by coalescence, provoked by a thermal treatment of microcavities generated by ion implantation. One can also cite processes using epitaxied barrier layers and selective etching.
It is known that implantation by bombardment of an inert gas or hydrogen in a semiconductor material (see FR-A-2 681 472), or in a solid material, crystalline or Anot (see FR-A-2 748 850), is capable of creating microbubbles (called platelets or nanoblisters) at a depth close to the average depth of ion penetration. The morphology (dimension, shape . . . ) of these defects can change during thermal treatments, in particular the size of these cavities can increase. Depending on the nature of the material and above all its mechanical properties, these cavities, present at the average depth of penetration of gas species can, depending on the thermal treatment conditions, induce surface deformations or blisters. The most important parameters to monitor to obtain these blisters are the gas dose introduced during implantation, the depth to which the gas species are implanted and the total thermal budget supplied to the material. In certain cases, the conditions of implantation are such that, after annealing, microcavities or microbubbles are present at the level of the average depth of ion implantation but their size and pressure inside these cavities are not sufficient to induce surface deformations. Then there is a continuous layer of defects embedded without any degradation of the surface. As an example, implantation of hydrogen in a silicon plate according to a dose of 3.1016H+/cm3 and an energy of 25 keV creates a continuous embedded layer of microcavities of about 150 nm thickness at an average depth of about 300 nm. These microcavities have an elongated shape: their size is of the order of 6 nm in length and two atomic planes in thickness. If annealing is carried out at 600xc2x0 C. for 30 minutes on this plate, the microcavities grow and their size changes from 6 nm to more than 50 nm in length and from a few atomic planes to 4-6 nm in thickness. On the other hand, no surface disturbance is observed.
The presence of microcavities can also be seen in the case of implantation by helium bombardment, at the level of the average implantation depth (Rp) in silicon. In this case, the cavities have a stable form which does not change during annealing. Reference can be made to the article xe2x80x9cRadiation damage and implanted He atom interaction during void formation in siliconxe2x80x9d by V. RAINERI and M. SAGGIO, Appl. Phys. Lett. 71 (12), 22 Sep. 1997.
Furthermore, it is known that defects present in materials are the preferential nucleation centres for the formation of a heterogeneous phase. As an example, concerning the formation of oxide precipitates, three types of nucleation are listed in the bibliography: in the homogeneous phase, in the homogeneous phase under stresses, in heterogeneous phases (see for example the article entitled xe2x80x9cOxygen Precipitation in Siliconxe2x80x9d by A. BORHESI et al., J. Appl. Phys. 77(9), 1995, pages 4169-4244). This oxygen which precipitates is contained in the initial material. It comes, for example, from the formation stage of the material.
By nucleation is meant the formation of aggregates of several oxygen atoms in silicon to form nucleation centres called xe2x80x9cnucleixe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cprecipitate embryosxe2x80x9d. More simply, nucleation can appear in crystalline sites corresponding to knots of the network where several interstitial oxygen atoms are close to each other (homogeneous nucleation) or on network defects (heterogeneous nucleation). It is known that these network defects can be point defects induced by the presence of an element exterior to the matrix (for example carbon in the silicon) or complexes such as, for example, oxygen-carbon complexes (see the article mentioned above by A. BORHESI et al.). For example, the point defects intrinsic to the material such as clusters of vacancies formed during silicon growth can also be nucleation centres for obtaining xe2x80x9cnucleixe2x80x9d. Furthermore, as an example of defects induced by the presence of an external element, the case can be cited of carbon introduced into the substrate to create a continuous embedded layer rich in carbon which will act as a nucleation zone. The introduction of carbon can be obtained by implantation of carbon by bombardment.
After the formation phase of these nucleation centres, to obtain a precipitate of larger size, it is necessary to have a precipitation phase. Precipitation in a material is a phenomenon of aggregation of atoms to form small particles or precipitates.
The critical radius rc defining the minimum size of precipitates capable of existing is given, for a concentration of interstitial oxygen in the material, by the equation rc=(2"sgr"/xcex94H)(Ts/Tsxe2x88x92T) where
"sgr" is the surface energy,
xcex94H is the formation enthalpy,
T is the temperature expressed in Kelvins
Ts is the equilibrium temperature corresponding to the given quantity of oxygen,
(see the article xe2x80x9cOxygen Precipitation Czochralski Siliconxe2x80x9d by R. CRAVEN, Elec. Chem. Soc., Proceedings of the 4th Int. Symp. on Silicon Materials, Science and Technology Vol. 81-5, 1981).
Starting from this equation, it can be clearly seen that the rise in temperature brings about growth of the precipitates.
To resume, defects create nucleation centres, which will serve to form precipitates which will then become bigger.
On the other hand, studies have demonstrated the possibility of reducing the number of discontinuities of the oxide layer embedded in the case of SOI substrates obtained by the xe2x80x9clow dosexe2x80x9d SIMOX process with the help of oxidation at high temperature (over 1350xc2x0 C.) of the silicon film (see patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,589,407 and the article entitled xe2x80x9cAn Analysis of Buried-Oxide Growth in Low-dose SIMOX Wafers by High-Temperature Thermal Oxidationxe2x80x9d vt S. MASUI et al., Proceedings 1995 IEEE International SOI Conference, October 1995). This process, named ITOX (Internal Oxidation), makes it possible to oxidise the oxide layer embedded by means of oxygen diffusion from the surface to the embedded oxide layer. Other authors demonstrate that the same phenomenon occurs at lower temperatures, of the order of 1200xc2x0 C. (see article xe2x80x9cInternal Oxidation of Low Dose Separation by Implanted Oxygen Wafers in Different Oxygen/Nitrogen Mixturesxe2x80x9d by P. ERICSSON and S. BENGTSSON, accepted for publication in Appl. Phys. Lett.).
The latter results indicate that the introduction of oxygen into the material depends firstly on the time applied at high temperature and not on the quantity of
oxygen in the annealing atmosphere. Thus it seems that the introduction of oxygen may be limited by the solubility limit of oxygen in silicon. Thus, the higher the temperature, the faster the oxidation effect for the embedded oxide layer. An example of this phenomenon indicates that at 1200xc2x0 C., if 5% oxygen is introduced into nitrogen, 8 hours of annealing allow the embedded oxide layer to grow in thickness from 860 Angstrom to 1330 Angstroms. This xe2x80x9cinternalxe2x80x9d oxidation is of interest because it reduces the density of discontinuities of the embedded oxide.
From the abstract of the document JP-A-56 110 247 a method is known for the formation of an insulating region inside a semiconductor substrate of type N. The substrate is first irradiated by light elements making it possible to create an embedded region of type P in the substrate. This region of type P is then made porous by an anodic treatment. Thermal treatment under oxygen makes the porous region insulating.
The document xe2x80x9cSilicon on Insulator Structures Obtained by Epitaxial Growth of Silicon over Porous Siliconxe2x80x9d by C. OULES et al., in R. Electrochem. Soc. Vol. 139, No. 12, December 1992, reveals the production of a SOI structure comprising a silicon substrate showing a porous layer formed by anodisation and supporting an epitaxial layer of silicon.
The invention proposes a new process for making an embedded layer of material in a substrate of another material. An original aspect of the invention consists of creating microcavities embedded in the substrate and not crystalline defects for creating traps. In particular, when the substrate is in silicon, this makes it possible to obtain a superficial layer of silicon of much higher quality and does not require the substrate to be submitted to a temperature of the order of 1300xc2x0 C. in order to mend the defects created by oxygen implantation, for example. of 1300xc2x0 C. in order to mend the defects created by oxygen implantation, for example.
The present invention also offers the advantage of being able to implement an implantation with a low dose of a light element (for example hydrogen) which does not induce a crystalline defect between the surface implanted and the microcavity creation zone, contrary to what happens when ions are implanted, such as oxygen, silicon or argon. This process is simple to
implement, since the implantation can take place at ambient temperature.
The aim of the invention is thus a process for producing a layer of a first material embedded in a substrate comprising at least one second material, characterised in that it comprises the following stages:
formation of said substrate, at the level of the desired embedded layer, of a layer of microcavities (called xe2x80x9cplateletsxe2x80x9d or microbubbles) intended to serve as centres of nucleation and volume accommodation to produce said first material in said second material,
formation of precipitate embryos from the nucleation centres formed, the precipitate embryos corresponding to the first material,
growth of the precipitates from the embryos through species concentration corresponding to the first material and carried to the microcavity layer.
The microcavity layer can be formed advantageously by introducing into the second material gaseous species, which are advantageously chosen from among hydrogen, helium and fluorine. Furthermore one can form the layer of microcavities by a gas inclusion provoked during the production of the substrate. It can also be formed from the interface constituted by solidarisation of a first substrate element and a second substrate element, supplying said substrate. The microcavity layer can then result from the presence of particles at said interface, from the surface roughness of at least one element from the first substrate element and the second substrate element, from the presence of micro-recesses at the surface of at least one element from the first substrate element and the second substrate element or stresses induced at said interface.
The precipitate embryos can be formed from species present in the second material. They can also be formed from species introduced in the second material. This introduction can be carried out by diffusion activated thermally. In this case, if the formation of microcavities implements a thermal treatment, the precipitate embryos can be formed simultaneously with the microcavities.
The growth of precipitates can be carried out by concentration of species introduced into the substrate. This introduction can be carried out by thermally activated diffusion, under pressure or by means of a plasma.
The growth of precipitates can be carried out by concentration of species present in the substrate, under the effect of a thermal treatment.
If the formation of precipitate embryos and the growth of these precipitates are two operations requiring thermal treatment, these operations can be carried out simultaneously.
The invention is related in particular to the production of a semiconductor substrate provided with an embedded layer. It applies in particular to the production of a silicon substrate provided with an embedded layer of silicon oxide.
The embedded layer can be continuous or not depending on the applications foreseen. In this case, one can play on the density of the precipitates, and the utilisation of a mask protecting certain zones of the material submitted to the process according to the invention.